From rabbis living in the West Bank to shopkeepers in Golders Green, from liberal Jewish movements to the Orthodox leadership, the announcement has drawn views that range from anger at what some call an injustice to relief that the government has finally acted.

Two rabbis, two views

Rabbi Leo Dee, a British-Israeli rabbi living in the occupied West Bank settlement of Efrat, wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister on Wednesday in which he accused the government of deciding to single out Jewish Israelis for economic punishment. He described himself as enraged at the injustice of the situation.

Rabbi Dee’s British-born wife Lucy, and their daughters Maia and Rina, were killed by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2023. They were shot dead as they drove through the Jordan Valley. He told the BBC that the government’s decision to place sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements, and not on the Palestinian Authority, was hypocritical. He said the foreign secretary was living in a different universe, and argued that the main group who would face hardship as a result were the hundreds of Palestinians employed in the settlements.

Rabbi Dee said that, apart from a small group of settlers who could not be controlled and whom most people do not support, many others wanted a different outcome. He said ninety-nine per cent actually wanted to work closer with Palestinians and have peaceful relations, just as he had done before the attacks of 7 October 2023.

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, emeritus rabbi of the New North London synagogue, took a different view. He was in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair at the time of the announcement, visiting the family of Awdeh Hathaleen, a prominent Palestinian activist and English teacher who was shot and killed by an Israeli settler last year.

Rabbi Wittenberg said he had seen with his own eyes several times in the West Bank the intimidation and threats towards Palestinians, and that this needed to be called out. He said it was terrible for Israel and for Israel’s future, that it was not what Judaism teaches, and that it was deeply wrong.

Supported by other rabbis in the liberal and progressive UK Jewish communities, Rabbi Wittenberg believes it is possible to support Israel, to be concerned for the safety of British Jews, and to think it right for the UK government to take action to protect both Israelis and Palestinians. He also said he was extremely sad that it had come to this, and shared the concerns of Jewish community leadership that people would use the sanctions for antisemitism and for demonising Israel further.

Community leadership and timing

The official leadership has been more uniformly critical. The chief rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, previously described the sanctions as a truly dark day and said they placed British Jews at greater risk of attacks. The Jewish Leadership Council warned that the government’s decision risks becoming a de facto boycott of Israel. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the timing of the announcement, before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year festival, brings concerns for communal security at their highest levels.

In Golders Green, an area of north London with a large Jewish population, people expressed a mixture of support for the principle of opposing settlements and unease about the consequences. One man who works for a Jewish charity said he agreed in principle with opposing the new settlements, but thought the timing was completely self-interested, a signal before a by-election and before the party conference. He said the practical impact of the move would be almost zero.

A woman who runs a jewellery shop in the area, and whose shop was twice cordoned off due to earlier incidents, was very critical of the sanctions and said she would make it her mission to continue to buy Israeli goods whenever she could.

Antisemitism and security

The debate is unfolding in a period of heightened concern about antisemitism. The Community Security Trust recorded 1,926 incidents of anti-Jewish hate across the UK in the first six months of 2026, a 21 per cent increase on the same period in 2025. The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates that only 44 per cent of hate crime incidents between April 2022 and March 2025 came to the attention of the police.

Greater Manchester Police announced extra resources for the Jewish High Holy Days, saying officers would continue working with Jewish communities during what is understood to be a period of heightened concern.

The figures and the policing response underline why the question of timing and of public language matters so much to the communities involved. For some, the announcement before the Jewish New Year feels like an additional burden at a time that is already likely to be difficult.

A wider context

Settlements are illegal under international law, and there has been a rise in violence towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by settlers since the start of the Gaza war, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. The UK government has framed the sanctions as a necessary step to safeguard the possibility of a two-state solution, and to ensure the country not only calls out injustice and suffering but acts on it.

The sanctions were announced after Israel opened up tenders for the construction of some 1,200 settlement homes. The measures target companies and people providing services such as construction and financing of settlements, and include a ban on the advertising of illegal settlements in the UK.

Why it matters

What makes this debate significant is not just the split it reveals within the British Jewish community, but the way it sharpens a long-running tension between two goods that are both important: standing up for what the government sees as international law and a two-state solution, and taking seriously the safety and confidence of a minority community that has been the target of rising hate.

The fact that the split runs from the Orthodox leadership down to individual shopkeepers, and from British rabbis in the West Bank to progressive rabbis visiting Palestinian villages, suggests there is no single Jewish response to the question. That in itself is a point that different sides are making in different ways.

What happens next

The sanctions are expected to take up to nine months to put fully in place. During that period, the government is likely to face continued questioning from parts of the Jewish community, and the extra policing for the High Holy Days will be a visible sign of how seriously security concerns are being taken. How the measures are implemented, and what effect they have on settlement activity and on community relations here, will determine whether the debate settles or continues to run.